Tag Archives: Marketing

Besides video and visuals, writing is still a fundamental aspect of online marketing, and given the competitive nature of social media and SEO for organic reach, the quality of writing only needs to get better for everyone involved in this industry. What are some of the ways the copywriting competition can be taken up a notch?

1. As they say, you cannot please everyone! Your page has a following and a target market, so it is best to consistently please the audience that already appreciates you, and tailor your content to elicit a reaction only from them. You can please hundreds and thousands, but everybody? It’s hard!

2. We understand you want to be creative and witty with your words, but often, you have to pretend a 10 year old is reading this and they need to understand it from the first glance. Keep it simple, concise, and to the point. Trying too hard to be cool will only backfire.

3. We are going through a phase where disagreements on anything are more common than not. If you’re going to be ‘politically incorrect’, make sure there is evidence to back up your claim. You don’t want to lose your audience over something controversial.

4. In any kind of writing, the first and last paragraphs are the ones that will stick the most with your readers, so make sure they are the best parts of the copy. In many cases, a ‘right hook‘ will be thrown to boost sales, and you’d want a good conversion rate.

5. Editing is more important than writing. The first draft will never be usually the published version. If you are struggling with content, write until you’re out of ideas, and seek help from your team in the process. The editing part becomes more important because you are just polishing the initial ideas into something more tangible. You’ll find yourself removing more words than you know, but nothing to feel bad about.

6. To complement the above point, everyone may have a different way of editing their articles, and as they also say, ‘You do you’.

7. And to complement #5 and #6, double and triple check everything you have written. It’s better to publish late because of editing time than publish early with some small but horrible mistakes. Once it’s online, you can sometimes never take it back. Save yourself some blushes and proofread as much as you need to!

Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions on copywriting!

This weeks’ blog is set to be a bit different. Even though we are a social media agency that helps small businesses grow their presence online, we are a startup ourselves. We care about the businesses we work for and how they develop and sell their products/services. This blog is aimed at companies who aren’t just starting, but also those who are trying to rebrand.

First meetings

The first important meetings should discuss what makes the business unique, and how the heads of businesses are going to convey that to the public – solving this issue is important because it puts you in a clear direction. It can change the focus and change the approach.

So the question they should be asking themselves is “Why are we doing this?”

Effective leadership

Passion begins from the top.

The owner and CEO need to create a united team out of their employees to have the best chance of moving forward. Leadership needs to inspire everybody on a daily basis and allow employees to feel important.

There is no need for the most beautiful office if the people can be the priceless assets. It’s all about create a fun, productive and strong culture at the office to make everyone feel at home, outside of their home!

Recruitments

The hiring process should take its time, and find the perfect people for any openings. People who will be a good fit professionally and personally, and who will get along with their co-workers. And most importantly, these new recruits must feel the passion towards the company mission and vision. They will put in more effort than they are asked for!

The wrong people will not stay long and will risk destabilizing the business.

While we are in a generation and era where everyone is excited about digital marketing and jumping on board with marketing teams due to their desire to create content and promoting products and services, it seems many of us are not quite doing it properly, thus the frustration of not seeing results when we curate content online.

A report written by Steve Rayson suggests that “The majority of content published on the Internet is simply ignored when it comes to shares and links. The data suggests most content is simply not worthy of sharing or linking, and also that people are very poor at amplifying content…”. When marketers create content for social media pages, they expect every post to get plenty of interaction, but the real result being 0.5% of that. This blog describes several factors behind this situation and how it can be resolved.

Bad writing

Great non-visual content begins with top writing skills. Most businesses spend most of their time thinking about the media, consulting and design and make the writing the least important priority. They think writing is the easiest part, so will not invest as much time on it and trust any decent writer to get the content done.

SEO what?

We understand it may be the least popular part of digital marketing, but one way to get traffic to your website and blog is by… doing SEO! Using keywords, tags and links to help rank high on google searches is the only way googlers will be able to find you, if they are looking for a product or service like yours!

Not promoting your content

Take a moment to picture, in your head, how many social media posts, blogs and general content gets published on the web everyday; we are talking millions! How many get noticed and followed? Not much. It’s one thing to create and publish great content, and another to promote it as cleverly and hard as you can. Similar to SEO!

No originality

To make your content popular, it needs to inspire and add some sort of value to the reader – what good does it do for them? Many brands and content marketers are just putting out content for the sake of it, but are not making a difference in anyone’s lives. However we cannot blame ourselves or anybody else; it’s not the easiest thing to do, but often necessary. Original content will both attract and retain customers, or fans, depending on the brand.

Networking-shy

Alright, you have now mastered all of the above, without realizing it’s all a solo effort! Success also comes from building relationships, whether it be clients, influencers or partners. This networking is not necessarily just going to ‘meetups’, where you meet people over drinks, but it can certainly make a difference through word of mouth. You have to interact with top people in the industry who can collaborate with your brand and help promote the business.

Single-mindedness

It’s very easy to act like someone you’re not online, and this means trust can easily fade away between networks of people. The last thing you want for your business is losing customers because they can’t trust you anymore. You can solve this problem by bringing in known and trusted people, to also achieve user-generated content. Nothing nicer than your clients endorsing you publicly because they like you so much!

Neglecting conversion

No objective or purpose for your digital marketing will result in failure. Just having content created and sitting there may not get you very far, you need to be in control of everything you do and constantly monitor your pages – and have an objective for everything you do.

Not using email

Many marketers are still hesitant on that one, thinking it may annoy subscribers. Much of the conversion happens through email marketing; and a big part of how you get sales.

A bad website

Social media pages aside, this is the forefront of everything. A poorly designed website will make customers turn away within seconds. It should be the best part of your brand’s representation online, because it contains the most important information about the business, and links to the blog, store, social media, etc. The first thing you need to do when launching or relaunching a business is build an attractive website. It gives your brand more credibility if it’s not very popular yet.

An extreme case to get the point across!

No marketing culture at your company

If only the marketing department at your company is trying to do marketing and sales, it can’t be good. Everyone at the company is supposed to have some marketing acumen. All employees represent the brand and can help build a better voice.

Lack of strategy

This is basically a goal without a plan. No plan results in no results. Whatever content you decide to publish will need some thinking and planning beforehand. It helps create an identity and structure you will go by to achieve your results. It helps measure these results better.

A narrow vision

Adding to the paragraph above, setting out with a plan needs an examination of the environment the brand is trying to target. It will not be easy to hit the right spot from the beginning, but you need to look at everything around you before making final decisions.

Commitment-phobia

If you want to be in it, you have to be fully in it for it to work. You cannot treat digital marketing efforts passively. Just like a romantic relationship, you’re all in or all out, and no in-between. And yes, this also goes for personal brands.

That’s it from us for this month! The Mobi Apps Experts team is no perfect by any means, so this article is written by us for us, and for you as well! We always strive to improve and I’m sure you do too.

Have you seen growth in your business since 2015? What is your plan to continue that growth throughout 2016? As a business owner, you should take the time to look over your marketing strategy and identify what contributed to your success and what may be improved.

There are many things you can do to drive your business success. The internet is filled with tips. One thing you can do it to be more specific and tailor your marketing based on your industry.

Home services

Plumbers, electricians and most trades and small businesses that serve their customers in the industry of home services often have a lot of competition to go up against. How do you stand out?

Search engine authority: In this industry, the way it works is that customers give you a call when something is broken or needs maintenance, so it is crucial to rank well in search engine results. Build your authority, and rankings as a result, with website search engine optimization (SEO) and authoritative content about your business and services.

Email marketing:These days, people are spammed with emails. Despite this, it is still a good way of reminding your potential customers that you can help them out. Every campaign should be sent for a reason, such as educational or newsworthy content or a promotion for your services.

Educational content:Good content has the potential to build your website’s authority in search-engine rankings and it can also do some selling for you, or at least save you time educating your customers about your business or services.

Professional services

Lawyers, real-estate agents, accountants and other small business professionals that provide services to individuals and other businesses must compete with several othersimilar providers. Standing out and finding clients beyond word-of-mouth advertising and referrals can be difficult and usually requires hard work and a big marketing budget. But there are things you can do to make your business stand out online without breaking the bank or spending too much time.

Search engine authority:The easiest way to gain new clients online is to appear in the top couple of search engine results when your potential clients search for keywords associated with your service.

Video:Video is a great marketing tool as visuals are king. People are engaging more and more with videos, therefore it is the best type of content to share on social media in the way of expanding your reach and increasing engagement from clients.

Educational content:As part of your website SEO strategy, you should publish educational content frequently (once a month, minimum). The easiest way to do this is to update your website blog with informative posts about your services, trends or updates in your particular industry, educational posts about things your clients may not know, etc.

Retail

After the holiday season, it is tough to keep the level up as there is a sudden slowdown in business. You can strengthen your business with a strategy for supporting your business using online tools and tactics.

Mobile-friendly e-commerce: Regardless of your industry or business type, mobile marketing is essential. For retailers, mobile-friendly websites are a great feature for showcasing your products when your customers aren’t physically present in your store. With an e-commerce website, you have the ability to increase sales locally and even nationally.

Reward program:Most retailers find it a challenge to build loyalty and increase their return customer base. Get creative about options you can put in place as an incentive for customers to come back, such as including a coupon with every purchase (or purchases above a set amount), providing stamp cards to work toward a discount or giveaway item, etc. You could even offer a discount or free item for customers who sign up for your email list.

Email marketing:A proven method of reminding your customers to visit your store is email marketing. Create a list through a pop-up on your website or sign-up form in your store, and send monthly campaigns to showcase new products, offer a monthly discount code or coupon, and announce any upcoming sales or events.

These marketing strategy tips are just a few to get you started in your small business marketing endeavors for 2016. Your year will be off to a successful start if you implement the right tips for your industry, no matter what industry you’re in!

Short and sweet is what Twitter is all about. It is a platform through which you can get the most bang for your buck, or, in other words, the most engagement for each of the posts that you make. With other 300 million monthly active users and 500 million tweets sent every day, Twitter offers your company/business an immense opportunity to reach potential customers. Unlike other social media platforms, 80% of Twitter users access it through their mobile devices, which means you will be at their fingertips.

Besides, everything happens on Twitter, from breaking global news to local events. So, why not join the crowd? Start a Twitter account for your company and get your business out there!

Before getting started on your very own company’s twitter account, it is necessary to ensure that you are well acquainted with the way you should post on Twitter in order to get the most out of your efforts.

Optimize your Twitter bio

Let the world know everything they need to about your company. For your twitter page, ensure that your company identity and the voice are branded well. In other words, have a bio that tells people exactly who you are and what you do, a link to your company website and all other information necessary pertaining to your business that you deem would be a valuable addition.

Connect in context

Twitter is about the now and the current. Hence, posting all the information on a regular basis about your product and the background of your company/business might not be the best way to go about. Rather, try telling your audience about your new and exciting product, its features, its qualities and how it is a must for them to have. Getting them engaged with simple posts that speak a lot is a powerful tool. Keep it short and simple—a principle on which Twitter rolls.

Listen and Learn

When starting something for the first time, it is necessary to watch what others and doin in order to learn. Observe your competitors tweets or search for keywords pertaining your industry in order to gather the intelligence. This is an easy way to gather the information and the marketing tactics that you need so that you may apply them for your own benefit. Watch, observe, learn and improve.

Grow and Succeed

Twitter is a social media platform in which there is constant engagement. For such situations, its necessary to learn how to handle situations with the best interest of the customer and your company in mind. Try and obtain information and methods of handling posts made in the best possible way. Another way of ensuring growth and success is to constantly run exciting promotions in order to strengthen your brand and to better engage with customers. Twitter ads are also a great way to get your efforts amplified!

Learn from others

In order to be successful, it is necessary to follow in the footsteps of those who were able to accomplish what you desire. Hence, find companies that are part of the same industry as you, learn their tactics and get them implemented on your growing business.

In the words of a provider of PR and content marketing for startups, “Make a list of the 100 most influential people in your space — journalists, thought leaders, potential clients/customers, big-name bloggers and writers, potential partners, etc. Add them to a private Twitter list and engage with them daily. And remember to “be casual [and helpful], not promotional. Build a real relationship and then look for opportunities to collaborate.”

Be regular

Posting on twitter everyday is a sign of a healthy and an active company. Tweeting once a week or once a month gets you out of the loop, and causes your audience to trail away from your business.

Twitter is a valuable marketing tool. Its minimalist approach provides convenience for your audience while ensure optimum engagement and success for your company. In the case of Twitter, there is no picture that is worth a thousand words, but a sentence that is worth a thousand words!

Why are newsletters back in force?
Newsletters. A form of email marketing that has a huge effect on the success of any business. They inform the public on the latest and the greatest events, services and products of a company, however, when time comes for us to invest our times in one, we are taken aback by the effort it requires. After a while of facing extinction, they have finally returned, and for the better too. Well, it is time to let go of the laziness and bring back the once active newsletters.
Newsletters are powerful tools when it comes to displaying your business in an organized, attractive and powerful way. Newsletters are publications that are distributed on a regular basis and are generally about the topic of interest to the subscribers. There is no way that one can go wrong with the inclusion of newsletters in their business marketing scheme. Newsletters have been a cornerstone for digital marketing since the 1990s, and some companies still have not abandoned them. Some new businesses and companies have even started to adopt the old custom, as they say; Old is Gold.Readers Pay More Attention to Emails?
Facebook and other social media platforms have their own perks; however, emails get the attention that social media platforms do not. It is true that sometimes the emails that are sent with newsletters end up in the spam folder or the junk folder, but once your emails have reached your client’s safe list, then you are sure to get your materials read, if not then at least noticed.
Aside from getting more attention, emails keep all the clutter in one place. Having a newsletter that has all the relevant information about your business in one place is better for any customer than going through different social media sites to obtain different information. You will have a list of clients who greatly vary in terms of their likes and dislikes. Some are active on many social media pages while others, not so much. Hence, a newsletter is a great way to reach the optimum number of clients your business can potentially serve.
Emails, if one can remember, are the earliest of the social media. It has the share and the reply button right there. Not everyone is active on every social media platform, but everyone definitely has an email that they check, at least once every few hours.Getting your Newsletter Noticed
Like social media pages, your emailed newsletter will attract more and more clients depending on its level of attractiveness, information, and convenience. Anyone can make a newsletter, but making one that sells is the task, when done right, yields results that are beyond expectation.Newsletter Dos and Don’ts
When it comes to any kind of posting, it is necessary to ensure that the quality is never sacrificed. Unlike social media, the content of a newsletter will be largely text. Relying on imagery and fancy formatting will not be very convenient unless you are on top of mobile readiness and responsive design. When designing a newsletter, it is necessary to ensure that you are able to reach out to everyone at a given time, and need to make assumptions that cover all aspects.
For optimum results, quality and success, embrace white space, short paragraphs that are punchy and facilitate the act of getting linked to your website or social media page. Avoid overuse of any components, such as too much text or too many images. Getting your client to read you newsletter is the most important step. However, with messy and crowded newsletters, the clients can be turned away faster than you might expect. Distinguish yourself from those spam newsletters and do not get on the bad side of your client.In conclusion
Reviving the newsletter trend is not easy, but given the fact that it is the new and the growing trend, it is vital to get on track with it in order to ensure optimum success for your business.

Nothing builds rapport, gets traffic, and makes sales like a great video

We are currently in the year 2015. Video is the dominant social media content format of choice along with a lot of sleek visuals. Video segments, “vlog” posts and videocasts are their own form of content that drives social engagement and marketing goals. It is time to boost your businessmarketing strategy and take video content to the next level! Over the past few years visual based platforms such as Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram skyrocket in user engagement. Video has even been used more widely on Facebook in recent years. There are so many creative editing tools and apps at our fingertips, which make it super easy to create interesting videos with the touch of a button.

High quality and professional looking videos are no longer reserved only by businesses with big budgets. Businesses with smaller budgets can create video content just as easily without breaking the bank.

Dynamic visuals can help establish your business professionalism. If you do not use some sort of video content in your posting, audiences will take note because this reflects that your business does not keep up with the times and technology. You want to appear professional and reputable. More commonly, videos are starting to become more relaxed and natural. There is no need to set up a studio and use high end lighting and cameras because social media audiences are attracted to spur-of-the-moment content and a spontaneous feel such as videos recorded on smartphones. These are more engaging because more people can relate.

Video builds trust, credibility and rapport

Recent studies show that people are more likely to spend time with someone they know but don’t like, rather than with a stranger. Presenting yourself, your products and service on video helps you to build familiarity, trust, credibility and rapport. Give your products and services a face and personality; develop a brand image.

Video content is a triple threat Not only can people hear you, they can read whatever it is you’re writing and most importantly, people SEE your body language. They see your eyes, your smiles, your laugh, your nervous ticks, any facial expressions and gestures, along with much, much more. And that is the secret. Body language communicates more information than you could ever HOPE to write in a blog or post. You need video to communicate this body language.

Exceed your customers’ expectations

Customers want their information fast and easily! The best way to give it to them is through a visual presentation. People often search a number of sites before finding what they are looking for and anything that makes this mission easier and more enjoyable is greatly received.

A picture is worth a thousand words

According to research people tend to remember 20% of the things they hear, 30% of the things they see and a huge 70% of what they see and hear together. How many words do you think a minute of video is worth?

Make your business more social

By posting interesting content such as ‘how to’ videos on social media platforms, you can develop a large following and draw more potential clients to your website. Video is easy to share and in instances can become viral, being seen by millions of people all over the world. This can increase visitors, boost SEO, increase your credibility and keep you in the minds of prospective clients. Video on your website can improve your search engine ratings so you can gain more exposure and prominence.

Trust

Genuine video testimonials are one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate that you are a trusted business that delivers on your products and services. They show that you care about your customers’ experience in relation to your business, help to promote you and also prove that you create relationships with your customers and not just sell to them.

Increase your productivity

“How to” videos that visually explain how to do something not only help to sell your products and service, they also save you time by reducing the amount of questions you have to answer later on. They remove doubt, add clarity and highlight your message, products and services in the light you wish them to be seen.

The power of hashtags is unbelievable. They can turn any word of choice into clickable links merely by the placement of the hash symbol# preceding the word. Once clicked on the hash-tagged word itself, all the posts on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus and Instagram containing the similar hash-tagged word will open; leading to a page of endless posts of the same theme. Hashtags are everywhere these days, and are the new trend. Are you part of it?

Being the owner of an expanding business and a marketer, you simply cannot ignore the immense power they hold and the benefits they can potentially bring to your company. You need to be aware of how to use them strategically and implement them for utmost efficiency in any of the posts you make on any of the social media sites. Hashtags are a great way to engage your brand with your market.

Here are three key marketing strategies for hashtags:

Brand

Trending

Content

Brand

Brand and campaign specific hashtags are used to market your brand and promotions. These are tags that you make for your own business’s name.

The best way to approach this is by adding a hashtag to the name of your business that is unique to your business. It should define what your business is. It should be the social media signature for your business; easy, catchy, impressive and long-lasting.

Campaign hashtags can, however, change in order to promote events and marketing campaigns taking place at your business. Like the brand hashtags, keep your campaign hashtags simple and sweet.

A great example of the brand hashtag is KitKat. The brand hashtag that KitKat uses universally on every social media site is #HaveABreak. Their consumers know this brand hashtag and constantly use it to engage with the social KitKat community.

Trending

In order to increase the flow of traffic to your social media hubs, it is crucial to incorporate trending hashtags. Like the word itself suggests, trending hashtags are hashtag topics that have become very popular. Trend changes, and it is necessary to go with the trend. Every once in a while, there is an outburst of a specific hashtag topic on the social media community, and adding posts containing these trends will ensure a greater flow of traffic. To further understand the pace at which trends change, the top 10 can chance within the timeframe of minutes. However, it is crucial to ensure that the trends that are used are pertaining to the theme of your business, and are not off topic. This conveys poor etiquette. Trending hashtag topics can be found quite easily as there are many resources online available for the purpose of providing them.

Content

Content hashtags are used in your posts. They are not branded, and are not used to define your business and marketing. They are not even trending or highly popular. They are simply common hashtags that are related to your post content.

The benefit that content hashtags hold for you is that they improve the SEO of your posts. Unaware consumers searching for hashtag words can get directed towards your business by if you successfully apply the content hashtags.

Some of the common content hashtags include:

Product

Lifestyle

Event

Location

These different categories can be tailored to what your business aims to sell. People search for common products, lifestyle, events and locations. Not only do people search for them, in varying circumstances, they even use them. When aiming for a successful marketing scheme, think like your customer. Use hashtags that both connect your product and your market.

In conclusion…

Hashtags are a great way to increase the flow of traffic to your business and engage in the social media community while getting engagement from the community itself. However, ensure avoiding spam hashtags that are of no relevance and do not overuse them. While they bring attention and flow, they can become bothersome if overused or misused. If you haven’t used hashtags yet, start using them now. Use the power of hashtags on all your social media hubs and get those customers rolling!

Harness the power of Google+ and see what it has to offer for your business. Read along to see how to gain more influence and exposure for your brand and your business. The first step is to create a profile and to link it directly with your website. The Google+ badge allows you to do this. When you have the badge on your website, you will increase your chances of getting more audience from your website and search results to your Google+ page. There are many features that Google+ offers, so take advantage! Once you establish a connection between your website and your Google+ page, your followers will get the sense of your business as having quality and authoritative content. Keep your posts up to date so that first time visitors get a good impression.

Start using hashtags. They are a great tactic for getting your brand out there beyond your followers. Google plus recognizes hashtags and gets you more exposure so use them in all your status updates. The platform may even suggest some hashtags for your topic.

Google+ cover images are now bigger. Take advantage of this fact and go visual! Upload an impressive design with your brand logo. Showcase a new product, express your brand image, advertise an even tor share contact details. With great graphics, your opportunities are endless.

You can also host Google+ hangouts. This is a great free alternative to online meeting software. You can have 10 participants in an active video, however, you can stream it unlimitedly to viewers on YouTube. Use Google+ hangouts for interviews, discussions, screen-sharing webinars or meetings. Get to know your audience better by joining open invite hangouts.

Why your business needs Pinterest

With marketing leaning more and more towards the visual, you need to include Pinterest in your strategy. Your brand has a story to tell and visual content is the way to go. Start showing the online world your brand image through compelling graphics. Visual marketing is a huge trend and Pinterest has great potential. Photo sharing is second nature on this platform. The audience is engaged and active so it is easy to get your business noticed and passed around.

Pinterest is like visual storytelling. Share the feel of your company or your lifestyle as opposed to your product. The most popular pins are fashion, food and home decorating. Tailor your activity to your audience. You want to showcase lifestyle ideas to allow your audience to imaging themselves using your product or service.

You can share a thank you pin to show appreciation for your fans. It’s a simple gesture yet says a lot and can gain you new followers. Pinterest also allows you to get closer to your fans because you can humanize the brand. No need for slick marketing tactics. Some rough-around the edges, homemade photography is all you need to capture some interest. Ultimately, visual storytelling is the most popular way to reach your fans right now, and Pinterest is the perfect place to start. You aregiving your audience a 360-degree view of your brand, products and service. If you aren’t comfortable with providing the glamorous pictures Pinterest craves, you can feel free to share other people’s images and re-pin. It is a positive image sharing site.

Why your business needs Twitter

Twitter has a whole bunch of new stuff to offer for your business marketing strategy. Start seeing results! Twitter is unique because it is seen as a microblogging tool for sending short, disconnected messages or tweets of 140 characters long to your followers. You can include links to other web content, images or videos. Adding a visual greatly expands your message beyond the 140 character limit. You can follow others, even those you don’t know personally, and anyone can follow you so it is easy to retweet and share, expanding your potential client base.

Choose an account name that is consistent with your brand image. Start following others on Twitter. You are essentially subscribing to read what they share so be selective. Next it is your turn to start talking. Here it is different from other social media sites. It is much more fast-paced and it’s a stream of ideas and sentence fragments. It can be hectic but fun! You can send a tweet, @reply in response to someone, mention another username, direct message a follower, or retweet something you like. For your business, you need to find the ideal spot between what your audience wants to hear and things that promote your business. Focus on the benefits you can offer. Give useful information and you will be considered a valuable member of the community. The quality of what you share will help grow your following.

If you are wondering what 2015 might look like for social media marketing then read on. If the changes in 2014 are any indicator, there will be a lot more changes coming in 2015.

#1: Visual & Video Becomes the Content of Choice

In 2015, video is predicted to dominate as the social media content format of choice. Video segments and blog posts and podcasts will emerge as their own form of content that drives social engagement and marketing goals. 2015 will also be the year of the visuals! Marketers will take images and videos to the next level! Over the past few years visual based platforms such as Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram skyrocket in user engagement. Video has even been used more widely on Facebook. There has even been an outburst of visual creating and editing tools such as Canva and PicStitch which make it super easy to create interesting images and videos with the touch of a button.

High quality images and professional looking videos are no longer reserved only by businesses with big budgets or graphic design professionals. Businesses with smaller budgets can create images for their content just as easily without breaking the bank. Consumers in 2015 will expect higher-quality images. In the early days of Pinterest, any image would get attention but now there is so much competition that the platform is flooded with content. Not just any image will do much longer.

Dynamic visuals can help establish your business professionalism. If you do not use images in your content or you are using outdated ones, audiences will take note because this reflects negatively. You want to appear professional and reputable. Videos, on the other hand, may become more relaxed and natural. There is no need to set up a studio and use high end equipment because social media audiences are attracted to spur-of-the-moment content such as videos recorded on smartphones. These are more engaging because they can relate.

#2: Information Density Creates Hurdles

There is one trend in the making that may be dragging us down: fighting through information density. It is predicted that by 2020,the amount of information on the internet will increase by 600% and some think this number is low! The challenge of cutting through this content shock and still being able to reach a customer’s attention span is themarketing challenge of 2015. This is the reality we have now and is contributing to various other shifts.

As the web adapts to this saturation of content, it will drive innovations to help businesses stand out. There are predictions for more interesting and engaging content forms. Videos will be more interactive and new types of short-form visual content will emerge. New apps and filters exist to help consumers make better content choices. We have seen countless examples of apps and sites like Facebook that filter content for you as they learn your preferences. Now marketers have to deal with getting through these filters.

#3: Paid Ads Become Impossible to Avoid

In 2015, social networks will continue loop businesses into their advertising programs. Facebook plans to limit organic promotional posts in the news feed starting in January 2015 and Twitter may beimplementing a Facebook-like algorithm for their news feed. Instagram is still exploringtheir advertising platform, and since they’re owned by Facebook, an algorithm that suppresses organic posts from businesses could easily be added. This means that social media marketers that would have wanted to avoid social advertising in 2014 will be forced to embrace it in the future.

#4: Paid Media Becomes Necessary

In 2014, several changes were made in the way businesses are forced to approach Facebook marketing. As previously mentioned, there has been a drop in organic reach and the upcoming Facebook plans to limit the amount of promotional content coming from brands in the news feed.

In 2015, we’ll see the rise of paid media. Small businesses will have to educate themselves on how to speed up the distribution of content if they want to compete. More businesses understand the need for a well designed structure that can bring specific content to selected groups at the right time on the marketing cycle. The best way to maximize the reach is through paid media. Paid media isn’t going away. In fact, budgeting for paid media will be more important than ever this year, as it will be more integrated with earned and owned media.